Liberty
Hyde Bailey, horticulturalist, author, dean of the
College of Agriculture at Cornell University vigorously
advocated that every school in America should have a garden.
He probably wasn't the first to promote the idea that
children would benefit from studying how plants grow etc.
But he had a certain influence. However, the biggest boost
to children gardening in school was World War I.
The pamphlet War Gardening (see
the cover illustration above) argued school children and
school yard gardens were urgently needed to supply the
nation's food. In a letter entitled "The Duty of
the
Schools," J. H. Francis, director of The United States
School Garden Army wrote:
" There is a mighty army of boys and girls, thirty
to fifty million strong, who have heads, hearts and hands,
leisure time and patriotism to spare. There are also hundreds
of thousands of acres of tillable land uncultivated......Superintendents
of schools must make their schools a vital, an actual,
force in giving more food to the world and in conserving
what is produced....Through the school children we can
make the undertaking not merely immediately porductive,
but a permanent factor in American life as well."
By the 1930's outdoor education and school gardens were
popular. The map at the beginning of this report shows
a fictional school garden. It is from a book called Robert's
School. It tells the story of a reluctant boy to go to
school until he discovers that he can help start the school
garden.
Many teachers can attest that giving children a chance
to garden, transforms even the most challenging student.
Of course, in many parts of the world, school
gardens are a common experience. Below is a school garden
in India.
Here are links for more about school
gardens:
Kids
Gardening website of the American Gardening Association
: which has lots of information books for teachers and
parents.
Edible
Schoolyard
Here is an online exhibit
about the life and times of Liberty
Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons.
Click
here for our School Lunch Reform issue with links
Images
used in this exhibit:
Lunchroom wide angle: www.sliceny.com/
archives/seltzerboy/
WW2 poster with baseball player: www.sirc.org/timeline/
1943_large17.html
WW2 poster with kids in line: www.world-war-2-history.com/
posters/ww1645-62.jpg
Hawaiian lunch token: www.ukulele.com/.../
hawaii/aliiolanitoken2.jpg
boy with sugarcane: The Food Museum
dumplings for lunch: The Food Museum
horseback: www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ozar/hrst.htm
lunchpail: www.pbs.org/.../evolving_ classroom/school.html
Amish walking to school & Mennonite boys: www.unshod.org/pfbc/bfs_amish.htm
Count Rumford: www.a-i-f.it/STORIA/Immagini/sito%aif%20
Early school kitchen: www.arthurdaleheritage.org/
loc/8b13660u_Schoo...
Serving: newdeal.feri.org/ images/L81.gif
More modern school kitchen: www.arthurdaleheritage.org/
loc/8b13660u_Schoo...
Serving window with line: boe.cabe.k12.wv.us/
history/Martha%20Elementar...
Lunch box scene: www.wholepop.com/ features/lunchboxes/
Drinking milk: www.extension.umn.edu/.
../diverse01.html
Tony’s Pizza: http://www.sampson.k12.nc.us/Countypage/Child%20Nutrition/NSLW.htm
School lunches tested: www.zillions.org/Features/
Lunch/lunch001.html
Weapons of mass destruction: www.finalcall.com/.../
publish/article_608.shtml
Reach Your Peak: www.sampson.k12.nc.us/.
../nutritio.htm
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